Game Bans

Unfortunately, once HvZ becomes popular, some schools ban the game entirely, or create restrictions that make the game less fun for your players. These restrictions have included only being allowed to play outdoors, bans on Nerf guns, or bans on advertising for the game. These decisions are often reactionary, and have been sucussfully challenged at many schools.

Don't freak out - you can save your game.

This section of the HvZ Moderator's Guide is meant to act as a stand-alone resource. If your game has been challenged or banned, use our advice to help protect your game.

If you're just starting your game of HvZ, you might want to take a look so you are ready for a crisis.

Preventing a Game Ban or Restriction

This may not be helpful if your game (or Nerf guns) have already been banned, but there are important steps you can take to protect your game in advance.

The most important thing you can do to protect your game is to inform administrators about it IN ADVANCE. Give them full disclosure, but also know your rights. Most schools have rules that protect student activities like HvZ.

Operate independently. If you accept no money and have no official position within the school, it is more difficult for the administration to shut you down. Obviously exceptions are required sometimes. (For example, some schools don't allow you hang posters unless you're an official club).

Aim high within the administration. Take the time to get to know people in your administration, and know who your friends are. Be ready to call in backup.

Challanging a Game Ban or Restriction

If your game has been banned, your first move is to sit down and meet with administrators. Don't do anything drastic or extreme - just suspend your game and demand a meeting as soon as possible.

Know what cards you hold when you approach the bargaining table.

"At Goucher, when our game was in trouble, we basically sat down and said, 'Look, we are in compliance with all school rules, local, state and federal laws. The press is watching this game. What are you prepared to do? Write us all up? Expel us?'" - Goucher mod Max Temkin

In your meeting, find out specifically what the concerns of the administration are. The section below will give you strategies for dealing with these specific complaints.

Most game challenges are based in ignorance. Like many attempts at censorship, often people who don't like the game don't know anything about it. This is like someone trying to ban a book who has never read it. Make sure the administration has seen the press coverage. You might show them the documentary.

Responding to Complains

If your game has been banned, your goal is to make compromises to specifically address the reason (or reasons) for the ban. Here's some responses to common complaints:

• Guns are inherantly violent. Remind administrators that these are not real guns, just toy guns. Explane that they are brightly colored. Offer to let them play with a Nerf gun to see how mild it really is. Point out that no one has been hurt by a Nerf gun. Ultimately, you may have to agree to a Nerf gun ban - some schools demand this. You can still play, and you might have to compromise to save the game.

• The game creates fear for people who don't know what's going on. Offer to write an all-campus e-mail to explain the game (great promotion for the game!). Remind administrators that the game is played safely at almost 50 other schools around the country. Offer to post a sign at campus entrances that says, "Humans vs. Zombies game in progress - do not be alarmed by zombies." Offer to hold a town-hall meeting to listen to complaints about the game - this has been very effective at Goucher and other schools.

• The game is bad for the school's reputation. Show them the coverage of the game from our Press page - it's overwhelmingly positive and has brought great attention to Goucher and other schools which play.

• The game is disrespectful to soldiers. Believe it or not, this is a complaint that we've heard over and over at Goucher. See this article for a letter by a former U.S. soldier which you can present to your administration.

• Are they worried about the connection to a school shooting? School shootings are caused by loners who are socially isolated. This game connects players with friends they never would otherwise meet, for a wholesome outdoor game of tag which is positive and fun. This letter by Goucher College president Sandy Ungar in light of the Virginia Tech shootings is helpful.

Take Control of Meetings and Set the Tone

What you have to argue for is NOT the HvZ game. To achieve success, you must make the broader case for individual liberties. HvZ is just a silly game.

What is worth defending, and what you CAN defend, are your individual liberties on campus as a student. Once you have your rights, it is a foregone conclusion that HvZ will be protected.

Here's a few tricks that we've pulled to take control of meetings about HvZ:

• Once at a meeting to discuss the use of Nerf guns at Goucher, Mods gift-wrapped three Mavericks and addressed them to the administrators' inner children. Once they saw these guns as toys, it deflated the argument that they were frightening weapons. Combat fear with humor - it is downright silly to be afraid of a toy gun.

• Another meeting was a serious, closed-door discussion with the college president and other administrators. The adminisrators only invited the Goucher mods, but the mods, in turn, invited every player of the game. When the administrators showed up to the meeting, there were fifty kids waiting outside their office. The players waited outside, quietly and respectfully, and gave the administrators a vigorous round of applause after the meeting. This forced administrators to confront the popularity of the game.

• Make some friends at your school paper. Find a reporter who is very sympathetic to the game, and just ask them to sit outside of the meeting with a notepad. Administrators will notice the press and be thrown off their game. Your goal is to make it clear to them that they are taking unjust actions, and create doubt in the righteousness of their cause.

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